information:
Past Meetings
July 15th, 2010 Meeting(.pdf file) February 11th, 2010 Meeting (.pdf
file) November 10th, 2009 Meeting (.pdf file)
September 15th, 2009 Meeting (.pdf file) January 29th, 2008 Meeting
(Meeting Minutes - .pdf file) SPRING 2006 MEETING MINUTES (.pdf file) WINTER 2005 MEETING OF WICHITA AMS/NWA SPRING 2004 MEETING OF WICHITA AMS/NWA WINTER 2004 MEETING OF WICHITA AMS/NWA AUTUMN 2003 MEETING OF WICHITA AMS/NWA SUMMER 2003 MEETING OF WICHITA AMS/NWA
July 15th, 2010 Meeting of the Wichita AMS/NWA (July 2010 Minutes)
July 2010 Newsletter (July 2010 Newsletter)
- Total Attendance: 19
- Member Attendance: 17
MEETING SUMMARY
President Rob Cox called the meeting to order.
Rob announced that it was his last day as he is moving to the National Weather Service’s Cheyenne office. The Vice President is not currently available. So, on a temporary basis, Secretary Mike Smith is taking over the President’s duties until the regular election later in the year.
Current chapter activities are focusing on hosting the 2011 High Plains Weather Conference in Wichita next summer. Ken Cook of the NWS has begun the planning process. Mike Smith said he would look into hotels [[Addendum: We have received an extremely competitive bid from the Wichita Marriott to extend the government per diem rate of $84/night to all guests.]]
Lori and Stephanie are reviewing our 1995 by-laws and will report on any revisions that might be needed.
Rob introduced our speaker, Dr. Erik Rasmussen. Dr. Rasmussen’s presentation was titled, “What Is Left to Learn About Tornadoes.” It explained, beginning with the tornado and working backward in the development cycle to the atmospheric conditions conductive to them, what we still have to learn. The presentation can be found on his web site: www.rasmsys.com/ .
Questions and answers followed.
Chance Hayes requested a round of applause for Rob and, as his final act, Rob adjourned the meeting.
February 11, 2009 Meeting of the Wichita AMS/NWA (February 2010 Minutes)
February 2010 Newsletter (February 2010 Newsletter)
- Total Attendance: 35
- Member Attendance: 19
MEETING SUMMARY
This meeting was held at the Sedgwick County Emergency Management center. They graciously provided the room for us while the Chapter catered from Hog Wild BBQ. The lunch was served around 1130am.
We had a short business meeting at 12:10 pm and discussed several issues. The first item addressed was to charge non-members a higher price to eat at the luncheons than members. This could promote more members to join and allow our chapter to be more cost effective. The members were in favor of this proposal and we will implement at the next meeting.
The next meeting is expected to be held in July. Rob had a couple of ideas for speakers. The first idea was to have someone from the Project Vortex speak about their discoveries from last spring and possibly this spring. The second suggestion was to have a representative from southeast Kansas and tell us about the flooding that occurred in the 2007. The members voted on which speaker they would prefer and the majority preferred a speaker from Project Vortex. We will post more information on this at a later date.
Rob suggested that we need to draft a constitution for our chapter. Our chapter does not have any record of a constitution or by-laws, and should have some guidelines to follow for future members. Rob asked for some volunteers to help draft this constitution. Stephanie Dunten and Lorrie Donham both volunteered for this task. We will keep you updated on our progress in later meetings. We concluded the short business meeting at 12:20 pm.
Chapter Secretary Mike Smith gave an excellent presentation on his new book "Warnings - The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather." coming in May. The book tells the story of how meteorology has been more effective at saving lives than cardiology, cancer research or traffic safety during the last 50 years. Rob suggested that we purchase Mike’s book for the chapter. We will most likely be voting on this at the next meeting.
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November 2009 Meeting of the Wichita AMS/NWA (November 2009 Minutes.pdf)
Chapter's First Ever Newsletter (November 2009 Newsletter) (.pdf file)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009, Noon
MEETING SUMMARY
- Attendance: 56, including members and visitors
Meeting began at noon with a buffet lunch.
After lunch, President Rob Cox greeted the members and special guests from NOAA in Norman, OK.
Mike Smith was selected as the speaker for the February, 2010 meeting and a survey was taken to select his topic: Global warming or ‘Miracle’ at Greensburg.
The speaker for the meeting was Paul Schlatter of NOAA in Norman and his topic was Dual Polarization Radar (D-P). He provided an excellent overview of this new system that will present both opportunities and challenges. Wichita will be the first WSR-88D equipped with the “beta” D-P technology.
Under a “do no harm” philosophy, all of the current products from the WSR-88D will continue to be generated. In addition, there will be additional radar products from the raw D-P output. These range from differential reflectivity to 9 new quantitative precipitation estimations.
There will derived products in addition to the raw products. One of these includes a network-generated precipitation type display. Paul believes that a well-trained meteorologist will be able to improve upon the computer generated display.
Uses for D-P include detection of tornado debris (especially useful at night), giant hail detection and direct detection of thunderstorm updrafts. The estimation of precipitation amounts should be vastly improved. There are likely uses for the new data that have not yet been discovered.
After a question and answer session, the meeting was adjourned to the new offices of WeatherData Services, Inc., an AccuWeather Company. The offices represent the state of the art in private sector storm warning and technological capabilities.
Paul Schlatter's presentation available in powerpoint and the associated video files used in the presentation. Presentation, Video 1, Video 2
- Lorrie Donham
- Chris Bowman
- Dick Elder
- Rob Cox
- Denise Ketcham
- President: Brad Ketcham (National Weather Service, Wichita)
- Vice President: Nate Reynolds (Boeing Wichita)
- Treasurer: Rob Cox (National Weather Service, Wichita)
- Secretary: Vacant!!
- Update provided on storm conference plans.
- Brad Ketcham, NWS, was elected to replace Chad Omitt as Vice President. SSgt Jennifer Chance, of McConnell AFB, was elected to be the secretary.
- Plans for summer gathering were discussed. Chapter members favored a picnic gathering in June at Lake Afton, perhaps followed by a gathering at the Observatory.
- We would still like to create a career symposium type day with one on one shadowing for students interested in Earth Sciences/weather. This item is alive and open.
- Peter Wolf also proposed that we host a severe weather/weather conference in Wichita sponsored by the local chapter. Several members volunteered to be a part of hosting and planning committees. We have had 2 planning meetings and will have a third in Nov. The conference is planned for 2005. This item is alive and open.
- Treasurer's report: $520. He would like to remind everyone that if they feel that this group provides something of value to them...then by all means please do not forget to pay your annual dues of 10 dollars/5 dollars for students.
- Weather Signs on roadways idea has been discarded. dead and CLOSED.
- Weather Radio talk show idea has been discarded. dead and CLOSED.
- The new Wichita AMS/NWA website is http://www.wichita-amsnwa.org.
- Treasurers report: Balance of $720.08. One time charge of 22 dollars for 2 year domain name registration. Monthly charge of 4 dollars/month for webhosting.
Paul Schlatter shows some of the new products that will be available with the Dual-Pol Radar.
MEETING SUMMARY New Officers MEETING SUMMARY OLD BUSINESS The meeting concluded with cookies and drinks. Meeting summary information not available at this time. MEETING SUMMARY After dinner the group met at the Farm Credit Building in the Kansas Room. Pete Wolf, president presided over. OLD BUSINESS NEW BUSINESS
Dr. Harold Brooks presented "Severe Weather Climatology Worldwide" His presentation was extremely informative and enlightening.
He showed images of what appeared to be a supercell tornado at 63N lat in Finland! His presentation summarized geographical areas
of the world that tend to have atmospheres that can support severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. He also described why Europe
tends not to have more severe weather (Sahara) and he explained that "Kansas tends to be more unstable more often than anywhere
else on the planet"
After the presentation everyone ate Krispy Kreme Doughnuts courtesy of the AMS and enjoyed beverages courtesy of WeatherData Inc. No pictures due to devastating technical problems MEETING SUMMARY OLD BUSINESS NEW BUSINESS Peter Wolf also proposed that we host a severe weather/weather conference in Wichita sponsored by the local chapter.
Several members volunteered to be a part of hosting and planning committees. We will be holding a meeting this Aug
5th to discuss timetables. This item is alive and open. IMAGES (Click to view full-size image) Image 1: Members Mingle Image 2: Mike Smith and Select-Warn
Winter 2005 Meeting of Wichita AMS/NWA
Thursday, January 13th, 2005
A hosting committee for the upcoming AIRMASS 2005 Conference was formed to help with registration, produce the
conference program and interact with hotel about setup. The following members have volunteered to help on this
committee:
The abstract committee (Brad, Jon Davies, Nate Reynolds) is planning on meeting on Tuesday, January 18th at 7pm,
at the ICT NWS office to set the agenda. So the agenda should be set, and posted on the website, by Wednesday
morning, with another round of advertising to follow by the end of the week.
New officers were elected at this meeting and dues for the coming year was collected.
Spring 2004 Meeting of Wichita AMS/NWA
Thursday, March 18th, 2004
After dinner at the River City Brewery, 22 people attended the meeting at the Farm Credit Building downtown. Pete Wolf presided
over the meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
After the business meeting concluded, Dr. James Moore, of St. Louis University, provided a very informative and entertaining
presentation on "The Challenge of Forecasting Heavy Convective Rainfall". After the presentation, Dr. Moore was presented with
binoculars, engraved with the date of the meeting, and name of our chapter, and a special picture of downtown Wichita in its
glory next to the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
Winter 2003/2004 Meeting of Wichita AMS/NWA
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Autumn 2003 Meeting of Wichita AMS/NWA
Thursday, October 23, 2003 7:00 pm-8:30 pm
Where: Kansas Room of the Farm Credit Building
Prior to the formal meeting, approx. 20 members met at the River city Brewery Co. in downtown Wichita. Dinner and drinks were
served and there was much conversation. The harvester wheat lager was excellent and according to Dr. Brooks, "The buffalo burger
was the best I've had in a while."
Chad Omitt suggested the idea of having someone from the group present a brief 10-15 min. weather/seasonal briefing at the
beginning of the formal meeting. This will begin with the Winter meeting in Jan 2004.
Summer 2003 Meeting of Wichita AMS/NWA
Thursday, July 17th, 2003 7:00 pm-8:45 pm
Where: New Mexico Room of Farm Credit Building
The Third meeting of the 2003 season began with an enormous amount of cinnamon rolls, cookies and beverages courtesy of the
Wichita AMS/NWA and WeatherData Inc. Pete Wolf, president presided over old business.
Dick Elder and Jillene Wahl suggested an idea to create a resource for students interested in pursuing a career in
Meteorology. Jillene has provided a link and this link is now on the website. We also discussed creating a career
symposium type day with one on one shadowing. This item is alive and open.
